vEVERESTING RULES

THE RULES

Vertical Gain

– You may decide to push on past 8,848m to get to 10,000m, in which case your ride will also qualify for inclusion in the High Rouleur’s Society (see the details here). It’s a two-for-one deal!

Single Activity

– It does not matter how long the ride takes, but it must be ridden in one attempt (i.e. no sleeping in between). Breaks for meals etc. are fine. You can break for as long or as little as you like. Bear in mind break times add up quickly, and can add significantly to your elapsed time.

– An exception to the no-sleep requirement is if you are completing multiple vEverestings in one activity. In this instance the first vEveresting must still be completed with no sleep, however an allowance for up to 2 hours for each ‘subsequent’ vEveresting exists. This 2 hour allowance is a total, so it can be taken as 1x 2hr sleep, 2x 1hr sleeps, 4x 30min sleeps etc. We will respect your integrity, and trust you on the use of this time. Please don’t break that trust! This allowance is to reduce the impact of sleep deprivation and ensure that you get back down off the mountain safely. As with single vEveresting attempts please ensure that you have support on hand to assist in making an independent judgement call on your fatigue levels.

Single Climb

– Rides can be of any length, on any hill or mountain within the Zwift framework. Essentially anything that has a vertical gain can be used to complete an vEveresting.

– Rides must only focus on one hill or mountain per ride. You cannot ride different routes on the same mountain. If there are 4 routes, that means there are 4 possible ‘vEverestings’ (think of it like the North and South face of Everest).

– Rides cannot be loops. The descent must be via the same road.

– Rides must be full ascents each time. You can’t commit to a combination of full and half laps within the one vEveresting attempt.

Approved Devices

We only accept vEverestings completed on an electronically controlled smart-trainer (For example Kickr, CyclOps, or Tacx trainers). This is to ensure the physical effort of vEveresting is in line with that of a traditional Everesting attempt. This rule is to ensure during the vEveresting the trainer is simulating climbing as much as possible.

Approved App

– Gradient setting to 100% replication/max. This isn’t a game! Riding up 7% means you have to ride up 7%.

– Your rider profile weight has to be accurate as of the day you vEverest. Weighing yourself once at the start will be sufficient.

Safety Agreement

– Riders take full responsibility for taking on an vEveresting attempt. Talk it through with your mates and family. They are generally a pretty good judge of whether you should be sweating it out on a a stationary bike for 20 hours.

– Your consideration of this challenge means that you are going to explore the limits of what your body is capable of. Know your limits, know the signs of breakdown, and be prepared to walk away.

– If you are under 18 years old, get a parent or guardian’s approval first.

– Be safe. It only counts if you get off the mountain …

THE GUIDELINES

Set-up tips

Trainer set-up

A ‘spindown calibration’ should be performed prior to the attempt. This can be done on the day prior if the trainer is in place and won’t be moved (For example Wahoo recommend performing a spindown if the units are transported). Following similar procedures for other smart-trainers as per their documentation and once they’re approved for vEveresting. Calibration values can be submitted as part of the vEverest verification process (screen shot is fine).

– Use a USB extension cable to get your ANT+ stick close to your sensors. You want every pedal stroke to count!

– Worldwide ride support. Anyone can join in and ride with. Hell yeah! Make your attempt known and you’ll have people all over the world to ride with.

– We recommend your Zwift name during the attempt should indicate you’re vEveresting (First Last vEveresting). This will help others on Zwift identify you during the attempt.

Garmin Battery Tip:

Turn off the GPS function and any back-lighting for vEveresting. Better yet, leave the unit plugged into mains power.

Recording the attempt

Zwift generated data Files:

Ideally we’d want the whole ride in FIT files (two of them) from both Zwift and the Garmin. Either by leaving Zwift open for the entire ride, or joining multiple FIT files in the event of Zwift exiting or the system rebooting. This is why it is important to set up the PC/Mac in the best way to ensure it won’t do this (Tips for the vEveresting duration Turn off all Power Saving, disable installation of updates, disable Anti-Virus/updates, and don’t multi-task during the event.)

Create Evidence to support your submission in the event of device recording failure

– We suggest you take pictures of your stats throughout the ride. History has shown that data can fail, either on the bike or in the upload. So long as you can sufficiently prove the ride we’ll accept it. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis.

Be prepared with portable battery charging abilities

– Batteries have a tendency to die after around 15 hours of recording. A portable battery pack is a cheap solution for charging on the go. Please note that units such as the Garmin Edge 500 will reset if plugged in mid-ride. This will result in loss of data. The workaround is to find an OTG (On The Go) micro USB cable. This cable has a pin removed which ‘tricks’ the unit into ‘thinking’ that it isn’t actually plugged in. Test it beforehand. The OTG is also good for charging your phone on alternate laps.

Alternatively organise your set up so your Garmin can be plugged into mains power.

Strava

– All rides must be publicly verifiable via Strava (i.e not set to private).

– Once the 8,848m is complete the current lap can be abandoned or completed at the rider’s discretion. The ride must be more than 8,848m on Strava so use a little bit of common sense and log some extra vertical metres just to be safe.

Ride verification

– All rides must be publicly verifiable via Strava (i.e not set to private).

– While not essential, additional sensors are encouraged to be used (For example heart Rate, cadence, or power meter). These will be used to verify the physical effort matches that of a traditional Everesting attempt.

– Ride to be recorded with a Garmin or other head unit so we can correlate this with the data recorded by the application in use.

– Zwift saves FIT files, even in the event of a program exception. If for whatever reason the program/computer resets, reload and keep going to schedule (you’ve planned for this, right, you know how many laps to go!). FIT files can be joined/combined when you’re finished and uploaded to Strava as your complete vEverest attempt.

– Take regular screen shots for proof to support your claim in the event of program failure and to assist the verification process.

Photos:

Record your set up, your cycle cave, your experience in photographs. Receiving data files is good, but we want to see the effort, the emotion, and your story.